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State Senator John Fonfara is expected to form a campaign committee for the Democratic nomination for mayor of Hatford on Monday. The former five-term House member began his 19th term in the Senate Wednesday. He wields significant influence as co-chairman of the legislature’s finance committee. Fonfara will likely take a leading role this spring in shaping and passing Governor Ned Lamont’s middle class tax cut.

Fonfara retains a reputation as an energetic candidate. He has remained rooted in his district, which includes much of Hartford. Decades of constituent casework provide will provide a potent list of prime voters that no other candidate can hope to match.

Arunan Arulampalam scored an own goal with his Thursday campaign kickoff. The former lobbyist surprised officeholders and others by proceeding with his event on the same day state Representative Quentin ”Q” Williams was killed in a fiery wrong way motor vehicle as he drove home from Governor Ned Lamont’s inaugural ball. Arulampalam began his campaign launch with a tribute to Williams, telling the audience he had prayed on whether to hold the event. God said yes, and Arulampalam began his quest to find the 6,000 votes he says he will need to win September’s primary.

Legislative leaders received a different answer to their anguished prayers Thursday morning. They cancelled all meetings scheduled for Thursday and Friday and closed the Legislative Office Building. Williams surpassed popularity at the Capitol. In his four years in the House the Middletown Democrat was the object of affection beyond the usual limits of bitter contemporary partisan politics.

Williams was no ordinary legislator. His success came from toil devoid of privilege. Legislators will spend this legislative session in the shadow of his death.

Published January 7, 2023.

Published December 20, 2022.

The phenomenon known as Petula Clark turns 90 years old on Tuesday. Daily Ructions will celebrate with videos of some of her most memorable performances. She is the rare female British international singing sensation, notably at ease with big orchestrations driving the melody.

She was an Ed Sullivan favorite. You see why here. According the the Sullivan show website, she performed ”I Know a Place” live and without rehearsing—shortly after her flight arrived in New York for her first appearance in the Sunday night powerhouse show.

Published November 11, 2022.

A note of confusion reigns in the reporting of results from the New York Times reporting. It shows Harwinton as the only town with no results reported. In Harwinton, Republican George Logan, according to unofficial results, won 918 more votes than Democrat Jahana Hayes, 1965 to 1047.

The Logan campaign believes it holds a narrow lead.

The Secretary of the State results page has Logan ahead by 2,934 votes with four districts not yet reported. Those four may be three in Avon and Norkfolk’s one voting district. Hayes won Avon by 1187 votes (including absentee ballots) and Norfolk by 213 (also including absentee ballots).

A candidate is automatically entitled to a recount if the Secretary of the State certifies a result with a margin of victory of .5% or less.

This is going to be a heck of a ride. Connecticut has not had a recount in a U.S. House race since 2006 when Joe Courtney unseated Republican Rob Simmons.

Published November 9, 2022.

This is not how veteran Manchester Democrat Steve Cassano had hoped to leave public office. He prospered under an increasingly harsh Democratic organization in Manchester. Cassano failed to prepare to thwart its pitiless will when it decided to discard him.

Cassano had the support of too few Democratic delegates at the 4th Senate District nominating convention in May to qualify for a primary against the organization’s new favorite, MD Rahman. After five decades in local politics, Cassano decided not to pursue a place on the ballot by collecting signatures for a primary or a place on the ballot.

Democrats and Republicans are engaged in a battle over the wisdom of Steve Cassano on the way forward. Rahman, after considerable delay, has snagged Cassano’s endorsement. Republicans are reminding voters of a spontaneous utterance about Rahman from Cassano.

Rahman, according to state campaign finance records, has put $300,000 of his own money into his campaign. His Cassano endorsement will likely reach more voters than the Cassano assessment Republican Jacqueline Crespan’s campaign is highlighting, ”He’s not ready for it…You don’t start in the senate.”

Rahman’s lavish self-financing puts him in the upper reaches of tier of Senate candidates who have poured their wealth into a campaign. It is likely to become a theme for others should the home health care business owner and real estate developer win on Tuesday.

Published November 5, 2022.

Diversity of thought and the exercise of free speech rights are under siege in the tony shoreline town. More proof of the assault on traditional rights came in an overheated Facebook post by Jennifer Baldwin, an independent member of the town’s board of education.

Baldwin took offense at a candidate placing a door hanger on her door. Baldwin’s Facebook post expresses alarm that a candidate would knock on the door of a home with his opponent’s sign on the lawn. Most candidates know that a lawn sign does not mean everyone in a household is committed to the candidate displayed on the lawn. It is possible, even in 2022, for most people to live in a household with people who do not cast identical ballots.

Richard DiNardo is the candidate who is the target of Baldwin’s scorn and suspicion. His response–also on Facebook–expressed bafflement at Baldwin’s fury in his own bemused Facebook post. He’s the Republican nominee in the 98th House District and faces Democrat Moira Rader on Tuesday for the open seat. Rader, who serves on the board of education with Baldwin, won the Democratic primary for the nomination in the House District, which includes Guilford and part of Branford.

Baldwin is the Independent party nominee for state treasurer. In addition, she is an assistant public defender in New London. She strikes some discordant notes in her Facebook screed for a public defender. Calling the police because a candidate knocked on your door? Most public defenders would roll their eyes in contempt at such nonsense. Baldwin is confused as to “what intimidation looks like.” By any reasonable standard, it does not look like a candidate leaving a piece of campaign literature on a door. Instead, it looks like a Facebook post in which the writer announces she will be contacting “the police to issue a no trespassing order.”

The most alarming Baldwin bit comes at the end where Baldwin reveals a taste for 21st cruelty. “[P]lease shame him.” It is unhinged. Public defenders are often seek prosecutors and judges to act with restraint and mercy in viewing criminal defendants. Baldwin appears unfamiliar with those virtues.

Poor Rob Hotaling.

Published November 4, 2022.

Republican state Senate candidate Pietro ”Rocky” Camardella responded to Democratic incumbent Cathy Osten’s recent xenophobic campaign mailer with a celebration of America’s beautiful mosaic.

Published November 4, 2022.

The loan shark was in full flower during tonight’s second and final debate in this long race for governor. Republican Bob Stefanowski continued his mewling about the state’s rainy day fund. He wants to pillage it and leave the state without the means to cope with the recession Republicans insist is about to descend upon us. Stefanowski is using loan shark math when he claims Connecticut residents would be better off by letting Payday Bob deplete the rainy day fund.

Robert of Arabia might want to ask his running mate for a tutorial on the historic 2017 bipartisan budget that set a course for repairing the state’s battered finances. State Representative Laura Devlin (R-Fairfield) voted for it.

Stefanowski has a business background in payday lending. He sprang from the grimy world of loan sharking. Savings are kryptonite for the loan shark. Payday lenders offer the loan of last resort. Connecticut’s rainy day fund is the loan shark’s nightmare in technicolor.

The test of Stefanowski’s philosophy of sending government funds to the people came before this campaign started. Robert of Arabia is making millions from the Saudi sovereign fund. One suspects the Madison Republican has not urged his Desert Kingdom overlords to return the hundreds of billions in the authoritarian government’s fund to the people of the nation.

Published November 1, 2022.

Democrats are on maneuvers. The party is sending foot soldiers to the 5th Congressional District to save two-term incumbent Jahana Hayes’s faltering re-election campaign. The Wolcott Democrat is in her first tough race. She won an easy primary victory in 2018 as the challenger to the party-endorsed candidate, followed by convincing general election wins in 2018 and 2020.

U.S. Senator Chris Murphy was Hayes’s most influential early supporter and is credited with providing her with a ready-made organization in the 2018 nomination brawl, Hayes’s first time as a candidate. Murphy has been alarmed at Hayes’s uneven campaign to see off surging Republican challenger George Logan. A Hayes defeat would not reflect well on her initial sponsor.

Murphy began early in October asking the party’s most effective organizers outside the 5th to abandon local campaigning and send workers to help Hayes navigate Republican headwinds. The request has not gone down well with some Democratic candidates and party leaders. They planned to aid Democrats seize opportunities (or guard against surprises) in other parts of the state. Murphy, meanwhile, has been campaigning for candidates in states other than Connecticut as Hayes struggles.

Democratic campaign pros have seen enough. They no longer view Hayes campaign insiders as credible sources of reality. With nine days before Election Day, campaign professionals from outside Connecticut continue to express alarm at the ill-prepared state of the Hayes campaign.

Logan, in contrast to Hayes, has only known tough races in his three previous campaigns. He ousted a veteran Democratic a state senator in 2016 and eked out a narrow re-election as Republican colleagues were losing easier districts two years later. Logan lost his 2020 bid for a third term. Logan and his team have given realistic assessments of the state of the race to hardened party operatives who can regulate the flow of dough to a campaign. They continue to be impressed by Logan, who has in return embraced 2020 election deniers as the price of admission.

Logan brings further advantages to his campaign. The people working on his campaign like him. No one on the Logan campaign works harder than the candidate.

Published October 30, 2022.

State Senator Cathy Osten plays a tough brand of politics. The Sprague Democrat reminds voters of that in a sledgehammer campaign mailer festooned with purple and yellow flowers on its lower border. She declares, “I only serve one flag: ours.”

It’s an odd point to raise unless Osten wants to emphasize a contrast with her opponent, Pietro “Rocky” Camadella. The Norwich Republican tells his stirring American tale on his campaign website. He was born in Naples, Italy and served in the Italian Navy, reaching the rank of sergeant.

Like may Italian immigrants and the descendants of millions of Italians who came to the United States in the 20th century, Camardella holds dual citizenship. He speaks English with an Italian accent.

Italy is our ally. It belongs to NATO. Immigrants have brought the riches of its culture to the United States and introduced generations of Americans to its beauty. On appropriate occasions, plenty of Americans have saluted the Italian flag.

Ella Rosa Giovianna Oliva Grasso (née Tambussi) was the daughter of Italian immigrants who settled in Windsor Locks. Take a moment to ponder what the nation’s first female governor elected in her own right would think of Osten’s ugly sentiments.

This is Trump level xenophobia dressed up as patriotism. What a low opinion Osten must have of the people of Columbia, Franklin, Hebron, Lebanon, Ledyard, Lisbon, Marlborough, Montville, Norwich and Sprague to think they share her base instincts that there are no standards in the pursuit of re-election.

Here is a video antidote to Osten’s ugly use of public funds to stir anti-Italian sentiments. Dean Martin (born Dino Paul Crocetti)with Caterina Valente (born in France to Italian parents and living in Paris today at 91) singing Antonio Carlos Jobim’s One Note Samba. A beautiful mosaic that Cathy Osten want to poison with their pursuit of office.

Published October 21, 2022.